It’s been more than a year since Santa Maria’s high school district announced plans to retake control over its most severe special needs classes, leaving teachers and staff working in those classes with difficult choices to make and major changes to process.
While most staff members have made their unofficial decisions and will continue working with the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District, many are still uncertain of what that means for the future of their jobs.
“Change is always hard,” said Cale Park, a paraprofessional who has worked for nearly 14 years in local special needs classes, providing health and educational services to Santa Maria’s lowest functioning high school students. “But when it’s something like this that could affect your family and your future … .”
Park is just one of several paraprofessionals and teachers who work within the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District but are employed by the Santa Barbara County Education Office. Through its contract with the Education Office, the district pays indirect and administrative fees and in return, the county provides teachers, staff, and equipment in the district’s three special needs classes that remain outsourced.
That’s how it’s been for years. But in September 2017, the district notified the county that it would be ending its outsourcing contract and taking control of its special needs classes, a move that district officials say will increase efficiency and save money. The change will go into effect before the next school year starts and leaves Park and his co-workers with a choice: transfer to the district or stay with the county.
By October 2018, the decision-making process was off to a rocky start as staffers became increasingly concerned that transferring to the district would mean lower wages and fewer benefits.
Although a majority of teachers and paraprofessionals have since decided to move to the district, Park said those issues are still a concern. But, he said, there isn’t much of an alternative.
Those choosing to stay with the county risk temporary, long-term, or even permanent unemployment. They’ll retain the displacement and layoff rights they’re granted through the Santa Barbara County Education Office, according to a county communications employee who did not want to be named, and those with seniority will be placed in positions elsewhere in the county as they open up.
Several paraprofessionals were considering staying with the county even up until the last days of March, but Park said rumors of imminent program and staffing cuts to the Education Office and its services are circulating. Employees now worry there won’t be available jobs and that they’ll be laid off permanently.
“So they feel like they have to stay [with the district] now,” Park said.
The Sun attempted to reach other employees, but Park said many are hesitant to discuss the changes with the press.
Though the Education Office could not confirm or deny the speculations of coming cuts—an employee manning the phones of the Education Office’s public information department said that because of staffing shortages and time constraints, there was “truly no one” available to comment—only two of the eight impacted paraprofessionals are staying with the county, as are all of the teachers.
While Park has been vocally dissatisfied by the district’s handling of this transition process since it began, he’ll be transferring to the district as well.
With a 3-year-old son, Park said he just didn’t feel like he could “gamble it” and stay with the county. Although he’s not certain of what will happen while employed by the district, he said he needs at least some job security for his family’s sake. If it were just him, Park said he’d leave.
“I kind of got the idea that we’re kind of replaceable, and that’s what it feels like,” he said. “I get it. We’re not credentialed. Some of us don’t have degrees.”
But Park said he and many of his co-workers have worked for decades in special education. He wishes they were being treated like it.
“It makes me think this is a business,” Park said. “Education is turning into a business, and that’s unfortunate.”
He fears that signing on with the district could result in increases to out-of-pocket costs for insurance and cuts to the monthly stipends staff receive through the county. The stipends can add up to a few hundred dollars a month and are paid to employees who provide special services to students, including tube feeding and language translation.
The district will be providing stipends, but Park said he and his co-workers have not been told who will receive them, for which services, or for how much. They also haven’t received contracts, Park said, or anything official on paper.
That’s because paraprofessionals don’t get contracts, according to Santa Maria Joint Union High School District Superintendent Mark Richardson. The paraprofessionals have, however, received updated information on their upcoming salary schedules, stipends, and benefits, he said.
Richardson confirmed that while most impacted staff have decided to transfer to the district, two paraprofessionals are still with the county, although he said they could still choose to transfer over. Those decisions are expected to be finalized sometime during the first week of April, he said.
Richardson said in October 2018 that this transfer process would be ongoing all school year, and at the time, he said he planned to have meetings with each paraprofessional to discuss the coming changes. In that interview, Richardson said he wanted employees to “know where they stand” before Christmas 2018. Nearly three months later, some employees are still confused and concerned about their jobs.
Still, Richardson said these processes take time.
“We are right on track with where we anticipated we would be with the transition,” Richardson wrote in an email to the Sun. “All of the employees had to decide what they wanted to do.”
Staff Writer Kasey Bubnash can be reached at kbubnash@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Apr 4-11, 2019.